Cathy L. Granger

PRACTICE AREAS

• Insurance Defense
• Lender Liability Defense
• Mortgage Banking
• Professional Liability
• Retail, Restaurants and Hospitality

EDUCATION

• National University, B.A., Business, 1982 - Cum Laude
• National University, M.A., Business, 1985
• California Western School of Law, San Diego, J.D., 1991 - Magna Cum Laude
• Contributed to Religion & American Law (Ed. P. Finkelman, Garland Publishing, 2000)

BIOGRAPHY

Practice Areas
Cathy practices primarily in the area of mortgage banking litigation, including lender liability and servicer liability defense. She also defends product liability, premise liability and professional liability claims. Prior practice experience includes complex business litigation and insurance coverage.

Admitted to Practice
California State Bar
Florida State Bar
All California Federal Courts
All Florida Federal Courts
United States District Court, District of Colorado

Professional Activities
Member, Defense Research Institute.

Hobbies and Interests
Travelling, writing fiction, spending time with her family.

Experience

• Represented a major bank, the investor of a loan, in insurance coverage litigation against its borrower’s property insurance carrier. After a structure situated on the insured property was destroyed by fire, the investor made a claim on the policy in the investor’s capacity as mortgagee. The fire had been caused by arson. The carrier denied the claim, citing the policy’s exclusion from coverage for losses caused by acts of vandalism and malicious mischief. Ms. Granger filed suit and successfully moved for summary adjudication, establishing coverage in favor of the investor, and subsequently settled the case for policy limits.

• Represented a major financial institution in litigation involving claims of loan servicer fraud based on loan securitization and modification activity. Ms. Granger successfully moved for summary adjudication on five of the plaintiff’s six causes of action and settled the remaining claim before trial for a small fraction of the plaintiff’s highest demand.

• Successfully represented a major lending institution in litigation brought by a lien claimant for payment under a borrower’s construction loan agreement. Obtained summary judgment for the lender on the claimant’s complaint, despite the unsettled nature of the central question of law in the case.

• Successfully represented a major bank and loan servicing company against putative class action complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, involving borrowers’ claims of constitutional and contractual entitlement to relief under the Home Affordable Modification Program, a feature of the Troubled Asset Relief Program implemented in 2008.